Skype special offers

The Philips VOIP 841 is one popular phone—well reviewed here and elsewhere, it’s one of the best ways to combine Skype and landline calls in your home or office without the need for a computer. Now Philips is offering a new competition for buyers of the VOIP 841 in the UK. If you live purchase a VOIP 841 at the Skype Store between now and January 5, you’re automatically entered to win one of three snazzy Philips prizes.

First prize is a gorgeous Philips Aurea 42” 1080p LCD TV (check out the flash website here, PDF specs here) that’s worth £3000, second prize (2 available) is a 9” Philips digital photo frame worth £199 (PDF specs here), and third prize (2 available) is a Philips communication pack, with a phone, 2 extra handsets and 2 webcams (altogether worth £189).

Any of them could be a pretty nice bonus if you’re already in the market for a Philips VOIP 841, or want to give one as a gift to someone you’d like to talk to for free.

For more information (and links to purchase), check out the Philips Competition page.

Good news for those of you calling India — the 50% off promotion has been extended to the end of August.

Whether you’re calling from Birmingham to Bangalore, Portsmouth to Pune, or Manchester to Mirat, you can make calls to Indian landlines for 4.7p per minute excluding VAT, which works out at just over 5.2p per minute including VAT.

All you need to do is grab some Skype credit and get calling

If you’ve never made a call from your computer before, don’t worry — we’ve put together a guide to show you how.

From now until the 10th of June (next Monday), you’ll be able to text your friends in these countries for half the normal price:

• Australia now 2.8p
• Austria now 4.7p
• Belgium now 3.8p
• Czech Republic now 3.6p
• Estonia now 3.1p
• Ireland now 3.6p
• Korea now 3.1p
• Russia now 2.2p
• South Africa now 3.8p
• Spain now 4.7p
• Sweden now 3.1p
• Taiwan now 2p
• Thailand now 2p
• United Kingdom now 3.2p
• USA now 3.6p

Hint: In most countries, you can set up Skype so that replies go straight back to your mobile, so that you can hear from your friends wherever you are.

To do this, you will need to validate your mobile number by going to Skype and clicking on Tools > Options > SMS Messages and following the steps described. When you complete these steps, you will receive a text with a verification code. Enter this code in Skype to validate your mobile.

Photo by JasonJT

From today until the next Tuesday, the 8th of May, you can send half price text messages using Skype to the following countries:

• Austria
• Australia
• Belgium
• Ireland
• Italy
• Poland
• Russia
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• United States

Sending a text to Ireland, for example, will cost less than 3.6p — a perfect excuse to get in touch with all those far-flung friends and family members over the bank holiday weekend.

To start sending SMS from Skype, you need Skype Credit. Once you’ve got some of that, you’re all set to go.

Update: The guys over at Digital Lifestyles point out that as well as being cheap, using Skype to send texts mean that you get to use a full size keyboard. Good point

Hint: For most countries, you can even set up Skype so that their replies go straight back to your mobile, so that you can hear from them wherever you are.

To do this, you will need to validate your mobile number by going to the Skype software and click on Tools > Options > SMS Messages and following the steps described. When you complete these steps, you will receive a text with a verification code. Enter this code in Skype to validate your mobile.

In April, May and June, we’re giving away free SkypeOut minutes to call phones around the world like there’s no tomorrow.

If you’re in the UK, you can claim ten free minutes of Skype credit on three different occasions: Thursday 26 April, Thursday 24th May and Thursday 21st June — for a total of 30 minutes of calls you don’t have to pay a penny for.

All you need to do is to log into your Skype account on a Gift Day and claim what’s rightfully yours by clicking on the Redeem Gift link. The free credit will magically appear on your account no later than 12 hours from redemption.

If you think ten minutes a pop isn’t that much, how about this for some positive thinking. Ten minutes contain 600 seconds (or so our programmers tell me). Which sounds ten times better. Still not impressed? OK, it takes just one second to say, ‘I love you.’ Now imagine doing it 600 times in a row. Now you know what I mean.

Have fun!

P.S. The ten-minute promise is based on the Skype Global Rate and one free connection fee. This unified rate applies to some of our most popular SkypeOut destinations. See all rates

1. Two great phone packages from the Skype Store

The hugely popular Philips 841 cordless phone is now available — with these extras:

• Free: Philips 080 corded travel handset
• Free: Up to 10 hours of calls to landlines

Buy it now for only £129, and save £25 off the normal price.

Also available is the Skype WiFi phone, which comes with the same 10 hours of free calls.

Buy it now for only £99, and save £20 off the normal price.

2. Free delivery from the Skype Store

Yep, that’s right — if you spend over £60, you won’t pay a penny for delivery. All the more reason to snap up one of the special deals quickly, as it’s only going to be available for a limited period.

3. Win £1000

All you have to do is pay with PayPal. Every day until the 9th of May, PayPal will be giving away £1000 — to enter, just buy some Skype Credit using PayPal, and you’ll get three entries into the prize draw. It’s as simple as that. Full details can be found over at the Grand Giveaway site.

Have a great weekend!

Plus, if you’re using Windows, don’t forget to download the latest version of Skype, which includes Skype Prime among other goodies.

As promised, Skype Pro is here — you can now pay £1.50 a month and get free per minute SkypeOut calls to UK landlines; all you pay is the 3.3p (or equivalent) connection fee and you can talk for as long as you like.

If you’re really quick, you can get an extra special deal and pay £8 for five whole months, which also includes £4 SkypeOut credit absolutely free.

As a Skype Pro user, you also get various other cool features:

• Free Skype Voicemail (normally £10 per year)
• £16 discount on SkypeIn numbers
• A £21 discount on a Philips VoIP 841 cordless phone.
• A £7 discount on an SMC WiFi phone.
• Money off a series of Skype Extras.

As a bonus, you can use your Skype Pro deal wherever you are — if you’re in France, you get free calls to French landlines; if you’re in Austria, you get free calls to Austrian landlines, and so on.

What’s there to wait for? Upgrade to Pro today!

Today, we’ve just released a very exciting deal in the Skype Store — you can now get:

• The DUALphone 3088 cordless 2 in 1 phone
• Up to 300 minutes SkypeOut credit

… for only £99 — you save £15 off the normal price.

The 2 in 1 phone does normal phone calls as well as Skype calls, meaning that you can use it for emergency dialling. This makes it a perfect replacement for your existing landline handset.

Steve over at the Skype Gear blog has written a pretty comprehensive review of the phone — he particularly likes the automatically recharging batteries, the quick startup and the great call quality.

Why not head over to the store to buy the bundle?

Alternatively, if you already use the DUALphone 3088, let me know what you think — do you agree with Steve’s review? Is there anything else worth pointing out to someone interested in buying the phone?

The sultans of style tell me that chintzy flock is right back in fashion these days, but we’re not talking about that kind of wallpaper. We’re talking about the kind that makes the background of your computer screen (or chosen item of gadgetry) look snazz.

To highlight the new wallpaper feature of the new v3.0 software, the Share Skype blog is currently running a competition to design a Skype wallpaper. The contest runs until 13 January, and three winners will each receive a USB Internet Mini Phone from Skype’s pals at US Robotics.

To enter, email your original wallpaper design (png or jpeg format) to this address along with your name, email address and Skype Name. Entries must be received by 11.59pm on 13 Jan, and winners will be published on the Share blog.

Though I’d indulge in some Saturday blogging to remind y’all of the special expat offer on this weekend.

If you’re in Spain (in which case, why are you reading this instead of barbecuing sausages and gargling sangria?), you can call anyone on a UK landline for free today and tomorrow.

To make the call, click the dial tab within Skype and choose United Kingdom from the drop-down list. Type or dial the phone number from the dialpad, click the big green call button, yak away for as long as you like, and then go away and count the cash you’ve saved. And spend it on more sangria. Bottoms up!

It’s dark, it’s cold, and you’ve got at least three more months of this dismal winter nonsense to look forward to – but Skype’s here to make your life warmer with its Talk for Britain free-calls-for-Skype-Credit special offer, which runs until the end of this month.

Just buy some Skype Credit (starting at £10), and you’ll get free calls to UK landlines for the next six months. The only condition is that you need to be phoning from within the UK, which, given that you’re reading this on the UK blog, you probably are.

You can claim your free calls until 31 December, and your six months of free calls start from whenever you activate them.

Business cards are so passe. Or at least, they were until Skype got its hands on them.

Skype MiniCards, designed by the creative bods at Moo.com, are cuter, smaller and sassier than traditional business cards, and they’re meant for sharing your virtual identity rather than your business identity. So you can customise them with your Skype name, SkypeIn number, blog address and any other contact details you want, along with speech bubbles, smilies or mood messages.

But the best thing about MiniCards is that Skype and Moo have got 10,000 packs of them to give away for free to Skype blog readers. To get your pack of 10, go to Moo’s Skype page and type the password ‘freebie’ where it says ‘enter promo code’. The offer starts today and runs until next Monday, so get in there now and claim your cards!

P.s. The fun doesn’t stop when the freebie offer ends. If you buy a pack of 100 cards, you may find a Golden Card tucked into your wad – and that means you’ve won up to 120 of free SkypeOut minutes.

This “giving stuff away” lark must be addictive, because Skype just can’t seem to shake the habit.

Their latest freebie promotion for UK Skypers, Talk for Britain, gives you six months of free calls to UK landlines if you buy some Skype credit. That means you’ll be able to keep your Skype credit for other things: calls to mobiles, calls to overseas landlines, that kind of thing.

The offer starts today and ends on December 31.

Following on from the release of Mac 2.0 with Video Beta, Mac users are getting another treat today: 10 minutes of free SkypeOut calls to landlines. As a famous Mac user once possibly said: “Mr Skype, you are spoiling us.”

If you’re using a Mac, you’ll see the ‘free minutes’ banner when you go to Skype’s homepage any time from now until 8pm tomorrow (Thursday). I’m using a PC, so I can’t see the banner. Not that I feel deprived…

Click the banner and follow the instructions to bank your freebie, which you can save to use any time you like. I suggest using it to ring up your mates late one night and tell them in a very loud voice to download Skype, or else you’ll send the boys round. A’right?

Being offered an incentive to get your friends onto Skype is a bit like being offered a bung to win the World Cup.

From today until 19 October – that’s one month in old money – you’ll get 30 minutes of free SkypeOut calls to landlines, just for persuading three friends to download Skype. (Of course, once they’re all on Skype you won’t need any SkypeOut freebies, unless you plan to start ringing up complete strangers. And you know what Mummy told you about that.)

And there’s more! Yes, those incentives just keep on giving. When your three referred mates sign up, you’re all entered into a prize draw to win a Sony Vaio FE31H laptop with integrated camera and mic, 20 Philips VOIP321 cordless phones and 52 Logitech QuickCam Express webcams. Not all at once.

The small print: To refer a friend, use this online form. As soon as your three mates have signed up, you’ll get an email containing a voucher code for your SkypeOut freebie. You’ll then get an email with details of the competition draw. If you don’t win the Vaio, don’t come crying to me.

Get your 20 free SkypeOut minutes now, punters. It’s the final day of Skype’s Summer Thursdays offer, which is a depressing thought for those of us who don’t like winter very much. Does this mean it’s all downhill from now, the home straight to cold fingers and thermal undies? Say it ain’t so…

But enough of this wintry talk. Glad tidings from Skype blogdaddy Jaanus, who reveals that Skype’s third birthday brought a rather tasty pressie - more than seven million Skype users online for the first time. (It’s my birthday today. Can I have seven million visitors too, please?)

Quick reminder to get in there for your free 20 minutes of SkypeOut, courtesy of Skype’s Summer Thursdays offer. Having mentioned the freebie twice last week on this blog, I forgot to pick up my own 20 minutes last Thursday, and have been kicking myself hard ever since.

So before you get distracted by work, your email inbox or the deafening screams of your next-door neighbour as she opens her BT phone bill, go to Skype’s homepage, click the ‘Get your minutes’ link, enter your login details and click to collect.